CYPRESS, Calif. — Veteran California racer Brody Roa will make his first appearances in the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series this upcoming weekend on March 25-26.
His first race will be at Central California’s Bakersfield Speedway on Friday and his second will take place at Southern California’s Perris Auto Speedway the following day.
In his career thus far, Roa has confined nearly all his racing to non-wing cars. He has claimed championships in his respective racing format during the 2016 USAC West Coast Series and the 2019 USAC Southwest Series.
However, he threw the wings on one time at Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford last year and did so again at the same track last month. The latest foray into the winged world resulted in a ninth-place finish in the “Dave Helm Memorial” King Of The Wing main event.
That first wing event a year ago was the result of a whim that did not involve a lot of prior planning. This year, the 31-year-old raised a lot of eyebrows when he released a schedule that included seven winged race dates, including this week’s races with the World of Outlaws.
This year’s winged efforts are considerably different than his single outing last season. Instead of just testing the waters, the crew is putting a full effort into the winged shows. Their dedication was evident at Perris Auto Speedway this past Sunday when the team rented the track and put in a lot of practice laps.
“It went better than expected,” Roa stated about his practice session at Perris. “We probably put in 65 laps or so. For most of the day, I just stayed in the car and just kept pushing off. We had some good sessions when the track was hooked up and had some moisture in it early on and then we had a session at the end when it had slicked off and kind of moved up by the wall. We were all pretty pleased with the lap times we were turning compared to what the Outlaws were turning when they were there last in 2019.”
The thought of getting to race with the World of Outlaws was nowhere on Roa’s radar two years ago. However, with the way things have happened in the world, things have changed.
“It is something I never thought I would have the opportunity to do,” Roa said. “Before COVID, we bought a new car and I asked my dad if he wanted to get something with wing tabs. He said I could call somebody else to drive if I wanted to do that. Then COVID happened. The King of the West was running up north and we did not know how long we were going to be off with the CRA stuff. Shawn Thomas had a couple of wings and he said to come pick them up. So now, here we are running a World of Outlaws show instead of a CRA show. It has kind of turned our world upside down.”
“We are just about ready to go for this week’s races,” Roa continued. “We have the car done. We really do not have any tires that are World of Outlaws legal. So when we get there (to Bakersfield on Friday) we will hit the tire truck and grab three or four tires just to make it through the first night.”
Roa has some family history with the World of Outlaws to consider when he hits the track this weekend.
“My dad won an Outlaw heat race one time, I think at Santa Maria,” Roa said. “That is something I am not expecting to live up to (this weekend). So, I want to give him credit for that. Somebody behind him said, ‘if you do not jump this start, I am driving through that tail tank.’ So my dad jumped on the gas, drove off and won the heat race.”
After this week’s races, the wings will remain on the car for NARC King of the West shows at Stockton on April 2 and Keller Auto Speedway on April 9. The next non-wing race for the No. 91R will be a USAC/CRA show at Perris on April 30.